ISLAMABAD: Federal Minter for Finance Miftah Ismail on Tuesday announced that loan disbursements under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) will start by the end of this month as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) board is expected to meet on August 29.
Addressing a press conference here, the minister said that Islamabad had received a Letter of Intent (LoI) from the Fund requiring a few edits by State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) and Finance Ministry, which were done after holding a meeting.
He informed the new LoI was received on Tuesday which he will send back after signing, and added: “We expect the board meeting would be held in August, hopefully the 29th, after which the disbursement will start.”
The minister said that rupee has become performing as best currency of the world following continuous appreciation against dollar for first 15 days of August.
The minister said that the imports were recorded at $.80 billion during the fiscal year 2021-22 (FY22) whereas the exports stood $31.7 billion, bringing the trade deficit to $48.3 billion. During the year, the remittances were recorded at $30 billion. Consequently, the current account deficit (CAD), he said, was recorded at $17.5 last year despite the fact had PTI was specially focusing on bringing it down.
He pointed out that PTI left a $48 billion trade deficit while providing subsidy on fuel, and giving amnesty to friends that almost brought the country to the point of default.
On the other hand, he said, the incumbent government is monitoring imports, exports and remittances adding that so far there had been $3.4 billion outflows and $4.1 billion outflows during the month of August. “So more dollars are coming in than coming out,” he added.
Reiterating that the PML-N government has saved the country from bankruptcy at the cost of putting its political capital at stake, he vowed that the government’s will work on controlling inflation next.
